Saw Accattone, a film by Pasolini. The title, Accattone, is a derogatory term for a someone who gets by on petty crime - a grifter. Accordingly, it follows a small-time pimp whose girl goes to jail. Without her, he resorts to small thefts, gambling, some paid work. The protagonist is unhappy through it all though. He basically has no desire to work, content to loaf around and chase girls. He's not an evil person and does not intentionally cause pain but he's often the agent and instrument of misery.
I had a hard time feeling anything about this film. This may stem from some failure in empathy, but I couldn't bring myself to particularly root for the protagonist (why doesn't he just get a job?) or to hate him. He's not a villain. The protagonist is a bum, yes, but he seems harmless. He cheats his friends mostly and they cheat him right back, laughing and lazing about.
The film opens with a bet about whether it's safe to swim after eating. One man insists it's fatal but Accattone laughs and bets him that he could survive. This is an encapsulation of the film. He's fatalistic but happy.
Jun 30, 2018
Jun 16, 2018
The Tracker
Saw The Tracker, a historical drama about a trio of white men hunting down an Aborigine in the Australian outback with the help of an Aboriginal man who is their tracker. As the title suggests, the tracker is the protagonist here and most of the film consists of him walking the razor's edge between trying to help the white men and trying to retain his humanity. The three white guys consist of a callow youth, a soggy old hand, and a psychotic general who is the villain. The general gets along very well with the tracker but their relationship is predicated on him being firmly in control. As soon as his authority wavers by the slightest, out come the manacles and bullwhip. For much of the film, we're not clear about what the tracker is doing. Has he sold out and is he now aiding the white men, or is he slyly wasting their time, letting their quarry escape?
The film is scored with a man's voice, accompanied by guitar, singing some fairly on-the-nose lyrics about freedom and "my people" and so on. An unusual choice for a period drama. The film also sometimes suddenly cuts away to crudely drawn pictures of the events, as if their budget had run out. This usually happens when violence occurs or is about to occur. I suspect the motivation may have really been budgetary or special-effects constraints, but the effect is eerie and jarring which - since this is usually when violence occurs - is entirely appropriate.
The film reminded me a lot of some of the more morbid westerns I've seen. Things are mostly kept lighter here, but motives are unclear and outcomes are uncertain. The four men are in hostile territory and, although the sun is shining and they are singing, it's unclear if they'll make it out alive. An interesting film. Not bad!
The film is scored with a man's voice, accompanied by guitar, singing some fairly on-the-nose lyrics about freedom and "my people" and so on. An unusual choice for a period drama. The film also sometimes suddenly cuts away to crudely drawn pictures of the events, as if their budget had run out. This usually happens when violence occurs or is about to occur. I suspect the motivation may have really been budgetary or special-effects constraints, but the effect is eerie and jarring which - since this is usually when violence occurs - is entirely appropriate.
The film reminded me a lot of some of the more morbid westerns I've seen. Things are mostly kept lighter here, but motives are unclear and outcomes are uncertain. The four men are in hostile territory and, although the sun is shining and they are singing, it's unclear if they'll make it out alive. An interesting film. Not bad!
Jun 10, 2018
Gozu
Saw Gozu, a bizarre thriller/comedy about a yakuza who must kill his old mob-friend who is going insane. The friend kills a dog, in the opening, because he suspects this football-sized lap-dog of being a yakuza-hunting attack dog. So, this is sad, but what can our hero do? He brings his friend out to a small town where the murder is supposed to happen. Unfortunately, while the protagonist is making a phone call, his friend vanishes. This begins a nightmarish descent into small-town weirdness.
Some is straight-forward creepy craziness, such as the hulking, mute hotel-worker who makes lights dim as he approaches, but some is more comical-seeming. At one point an American woman is giving the protagonist directions. She speaks very halting Japanese and is revealed to be literally reading from queue cards. This is too weird to be taken seriously. The protagonist reads along with her incredulously before running off. This is a Takashi Miike film, so some level of bizarreness is expected. This has his usual mix of comedy and horror. There's some great Lynch-ian grumbles on the soundtrack, with sudden bursts of feedback and static indicating that weirdness is about to go down.
I think the film was primarily about putting weird shit on screen, but it also seemed to obliquely explore some latent attraction the protagonist had for his friend. They examine each other's genitals and homosexuals and anal penetration are used to horrify the audience. This may be just used for shock value but the film makes more sense to me as the protagonist struggling with his feelings for his friend. There's also some strangeness involving the titular minotaur who, I guess, lurks in the center of this small-town maze of craziness (and feelings!) It's very strange - definitely worth a look.
Some is straight-forward creepy craziness, such as the hulking, mute hotel-worker who makes lights dim as he approaches, but some is more comical-seeming. At one point an American woman is giving the protagonist directions. She speaks very halting Japanese and is revealed to be literally reading from queue cards. This is too weird to be taken seriously. The protagonist reads along with her incredulously before running off. This is a Takashi Miike film, so some level of bizarreness is expected. This has his usual mix of comedy and horror. There's some great Lynch-ian grumbles on the soundtrack, with sudden bursts of feedback and static indicating that weirdness is about to go down.
I think the film was primarily about putting weird shit on screen, but it also seemed to obliquely explore some latent attraction the protagonist had for his friend. They examine each other's genitals and homosexuals and anal penetration are used to horrify the audience. This may be just used for shock value but the film makes more sense to me as the protagonist struggling with his feelings for his friend. There's also some strangeness involving the titular minotaur who, I guess, lurks in the center of this small-town maze of craziness (and feelings!) It's very strange - definitely worth a look.
Harakiri (1962)
Saw Harakiri, a samurai movie that opens with a samurai asking a noble house for a place to commit harakiri. The nobles explain to each other that this is a scam - the samurai wants to be offered a job just to avoid the messiness of a harakiri. They examine his sword and find it's bamboo, his real sword has been pawned off years ago. In a fit of cruelty, they force him commit harakiri with the bamboo sword. His death is graphic, slow, and horrible. At this point, I was very excited. No more assassinations of bureaucrats, no chilly discussions of honor, this film was clearly willing to go someplace new.
The film makes good on its opening, continuing as a morbid and melodramatic film. The nut of the film is conflict between human nature and harsh, unyielding rules. This is reflected in the settings as well. The noble house is all strong, rigid beams and lines. When we see the protagonist's house, it's a poor hovel - all warped wood. The pillars are there, but the lines bend.
As with the other films (the bureaucrat assassination ones) this one comes down in opposition to authority, even giving us an unsatisfying ending to ensure that it sticks uncomfortably in our craw. The nobles, with their rigid dehumanizing view of samurais and the samurai code, are the clear villains.
Anyway, I liked this movie. It's very a-typical of the samurai movies I've seen from the 60s. It feels very modern, both in its sensationalism and in its handling of violence and in its anti-authoritarian message. This is a gem.
The film makes good on its opening, continuing as a morbid and melodramatic film. The nut of the film is conflict between human nature and harsh, unyielding rules. This is reflected in the settings as well. The noble house is all strong, rigid beams and lines. When we see the protagonist's house, it's a poor hovel - all warped wood. The pillars are there, but the lines bend.
As with the other films (the bureaucrat assassination ones) this one comes down in opposition to authority, even giving us an unsatisfying ending to ensure that it sticks uncomfortably in our craw. The nobles, with their rigid dehumanizing view of samurais and the samurai code, are the clear villains.
Anyway, I liked this movie. It's very a-typical of the samurai movies I've seen from the 60s. It feels very modern, both in its sensationalism and in its handling of violence and in its anti-authoritarian message. This is a gem.
Jun 9, 2018
Wavelength
Saw Wavelength, an experimental, structural film which consists of a slow, 45-minute long zoom in to a photograph of the ocean that's hanging on the wall of a room. As this happens, a tone is played which gets higher and higher the closer we get. There's also some business with adding filters to the film, to make it brighter inside the room, outside the room, to invert the colors, to tint the image dyan or yellow.
I couldn't really make much of the film. It is short, but it's definitely something I had to endure. There are some vignettes involving people in the room, but they are soon dispensed with and we return to the chilly austerity of a single image, slowly getting larger.
According to the director, the film is supposed to be a summation of the director's nervous system, religion, and aesthetics. This seems willfully obscure to me, and less than the sum of its parts. Hilariously, the director released a 15-mite version called WVLNT (Wavelength For Those Who Don't Have the Time)
I couldn't really make much of the film. It is short, but it's definitely something I had to endure. There are some vignettes involving people in the room, but they are soon dispensed with and we return to the chilly austerity of a single image, slowly getting larger.
According to the director, the film is supposed to be a summation of the director's nervous system, religion, and aesthetics. This seems willfully obscure to me, and less than the sum of its parts. Hilariously, the director released a 15-mite version called WVLNT (Wavelength For Those Who Don't Have the Time)
The Black Balloon
Saw The Black Balloon, a film about a teeager growing up with his low-functioning autistic brother. His father is involved somehow in the Army, his mother is pregnant and he's a teenager who must now start pulling his weight. It's quickly established that he feels neglected by his parents, living in the shadow of his needy and obnoxious brother. The brother is portrayed as a sort of force of nature, a capricious source of chaos in their lives that is sometimes quietly playing video games, sometimes leaping about the house screaming. All of these things must just be endured but this is hard for a young man.
To complicate his life further, he's going to some rich-kids school where they're perpetually learning to become lifeguards. There he gets one of those impossibly perfect girlfriends that only exist in movies about learning to deal with life. She's played with charm but kind of only exists to be sweet and understanding.
There's a good scene with her where the protagonist is mortified by his brother's behavior only to have her shrug it off as no big deal. This is kind of the nut of the film. Most everyone understands about disabled relatives - there's no need to be embarrassed. And similarly, there's nothing to be gained by wishing that the situation were different. It is this way, so try to help out okay?
Since this is a feel-good movie, everything ultimately works out but it would have been interesting to see a failure state. Sometimes, surely, we can't handle what we are given. What then? There's some climactic conflict where the protagonist rages against the world for inflicting this burden on him, but he has a strong father, a patient mother, and an angelic girlfriend (and also a Super Nintendo that is clearly bootleg.)
To complicate his life further, he's going to some rich-kids school where they're perpetually learning to become lifeguards. There he gets one of those impossibly perfect girlfriends that only exist in movies about learning to deal with life. She's played with charm but kind of only exists to be sweet and understanding.
There's a good scene with her where the protagonist is mortified by his brother's behavior only to have her shrug it off as no big deal. This is kind of the nut of the film. Most everyone understands about disabled relatives - there's no need to be embarrassed. And similarly, there's nothing to be gained by wishing that the situation were different. It is this way, so try to help out okay?
Since this is a feel-good movie, everything ultimately works out but it would have been interesting to see a failure state. Sometimes, surely, we can't handle what we are given. What then? There's some climactic conflict where the protagonist rages against the world for inflicting this burden on him, but he has a strong father, a patient mother, and an angelic girlfriend (and also a Super Nintendo that is clearly bootleg.)
Jun 2, 2018
Jigoku
Saw Jigoku, an early Japanese horror film (from the 60s). The protagonist is a personality-less college student who is friends with some seriously sinister dude who wears a lot of black and a lot of red and who I think is supposed to be the (or a) devil. So these two have a hit-and-run accident that throws them into a spiral of deaths, murders, and hidden crimes, escalating in the protagonist actually going to Hell.
The film is amazing. The protagonist is a bit weak, it's true, but horror protagonists are often merely faces to witness the crazy spectacle. And spectacular this film is. he ending third in hell, especially, is great. Jarring discordant jazz mixed with women screaming and jet engines fill the soundtrack, spot lighting makes the characters look like lost ghosts in an ocean of black. It's a bit tame by today's standards but it's worth a look.
I also liked the harsh, didactic world of the film, where all sins are punished and punished s cruel, bizarre ways. The melodramatic logic of the deaths is also nice, ticking along like a clock, each inevitably leading to the other. This isn't a scary movie so much a grotesque and imaginative one, but that's the type I like best anyway. Definitely worth a look!
The film is amazing. The protagonist is a bit weak, it's true, but horror protagonists are often merely faces to witness the crazy spectacle. And spectacular this film is. he ending third in hell, especially, is great. Jarring discordant jazz mixed with women screaming and jet engines fill the soundtrack, spot lighting makes the characters look like lost ghosts in an ocean of black. It's a bit tame by today's standards but it's worth a look.
I also liked the harsh, didactic world of the film, where all sins are punished and punished s cruel, bizarre ways. The melodramatic logic of the deaths is also nice, ticking along like a clock, each inevitably leading to the other. This isn't a scary movie so much a grotesque and imaginative one, but that's the type I like best anyway. Definitely worth a look!
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